According to Patent References 1 and 2, printing sheets or delivery tickets equipped with RFDI (radio frequency identification) tag have been known conventionally.
Such sheets integrated with memory devices are called “memory-equipped sheet”. Here, it should be noted that the medium of the sheet is not limited to paper. For the apparatus that uses such a memory-equipped sheet, the foregoing Patent Reference 1 cites printers, copiers and facsimile apparatuses, wherein these apparatuses carry out image formation on such memory-equipped sheets and further carry out reading and writing of information from and to the memory device provided to the sheets.
Further, Patent Reference 3 describes a scanner device that reads from memory-equipped sheets, while Patent Reference 4 describes a shredder apparatus that discards such memory-equipped sheets. Further, Patent Reference 6 describes a facsimile apparatus transmitting information on the memory-added sheets by way of facsimile transmission, while Patent Reference 7 describes an apparatus that carries out Internet facsimile transmission of the information on the memory-equipped sheets over a network. Further, Patent Reference 8 describes an image forming apparatus that uses memory-equipped sheets according to the security information held in the equipped memory device, while Patent Reference 9 describes image forming sheets equipped with memory device and a document management server. Further, Patent Reference 10 describes an image forming apparatus that processes memory-equipped sheets according to the security information.
(Patent Reference 1)
    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2002-337426(Patent Reference 2)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2000-335710(Patent Reference 3)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2005-101935(Patent Reference 4)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2005-095897(Patent Reference 5)    Japanese Patent Publication 06-051434(Patent Reference 6)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2003-333298(Patent Reference 7)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2005-094369(Patent Reference 8)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2004-152260(Patent Reference 9)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2004-192610(Patent Reference 10)    Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2004-066692
While such memory-equipped sheets, or the apparatuses that carry out processes such as image formation, image reading, discarding, stapling, facsimile transmission with regard to such memory-equipped sheets, have been known in the art, the conventional technology of this field mainly focuses upon the function of traceability and security, and problems still remain with regard to the efficiency for the user to carry out operation while using such memory-equipped sheets.
In the case of handling sheets containing plural documents, for example, there often arises a situation in which it is desired to take out a specific sheet out from a plurality of sheets for confirmation of the contents. However, there exits no such an apparatus that can select a desired sheet, and thus, it has been necessary for the user to take out the sheets one by one while confirming the contents thereof. Thus, there has been a problem of poor work efficiency with regard to such an operation of the user.